Ꭷ ᏂᎦᏓᏊ
I realize up front I must disclose my bias. I am a barely identifiable, mixed blood Cherokee man that believes in gerontocracy. I cannot speak for Indigenous, or Native, people in general, as we are all different. By the same token, I cannot speak for Cherokees because we are also incredibly diverse. My views are my own but have been informed by our traditional teachings- ᎠᏂᎩᏚᏩᎩ ᏗᎧᏃᏩᏛᏍᏗ ᏕᏥᏍᏓᏩᏗᏒ
Like many people, when I saw the shortened clip after the Native Peoples’ March in DC last Saturday, I was heartbroken. I was not enraged, just hurt. I, like most Native people, recognized Nate Phillips’s experience and related to it, what looked like contempt and arrogance on the young man’s face under that MAGA cap. It was social media. We should have been more cautious with the response. Even though it was a social media video that seemed to have started the backlash to the incident, it seems that in the backlash to social media, mainstream media has not done much better.
I immediately began to think of ways we could make the situation better for everyone. Our children need better educations. We should not indoctrinate them to a specific political spectrum but educate them to think critically about what it means to be a good citizen in today’s world. Various perspectives should be discussed with historical and social context and critically examined. Children should be guided and not lead to be myopic.
I’m friends with angry Natives. Sometimes, I am an angry Native. When I see “MAGA,” I also see “let’s return to a time that we have heard about, a time when minorities had much less access to wealth, resources, education and power, when our grandparents were stripped of our languages, and our parents were forced to negotiate the choice between identity and survival”. I grew up in a time that was good to be Indian. I was made to feel honored by my heritage, but I have learned this is a newer paradigm and the older America was not so great for far too many people. It’s better now and I appreciate that. To make it great again, begs the question of how to do that. For some it could be nothing but the best of intentions, but for others it could be less, a return to the challenging times of my elders and ancestors. Based on the actions of some, many of us fear the latter.
The boys should not have been subjected to the verbal assaults shown in the extended videos or the backlash from social media. They were indeed wearing inflammatory clothing and that is an act. Maybe they were coached or didn’t know better but wearing something that, to so many, represents a time of oppression and racism is a conscious act to communicate their position. It could at the very least inspire negative reactions, and in some areas put the wearer in danger. I don’t think anyone should be accosted for what they choose to wear. I also don’t think children should walk around DC with politically inflammatory rhetoric, for their own sake, especially at school sanctioned events. They should be sheltered from that level of discourse in representation of their school.
When an elder of any background approaches me for any reason, I show respect. To me, respect is a behavior, not just a feeling. It didn’t used to be just a Native thing. It was a universal thing. Now we are taught to respect those that respect us. Our older generations were taught that respect is a given to elders. It is clear Mr. Phillips believed he was stepping into a potentially charged situation wherein a large group of young men were in a verbal altercation with a smaller group of minorities.
In effort to diffuse the situation, through an intervention of sorts, he stepped between them using our oldest form of reconciliation, a song. This may have been misunderstood by the young men and they may have had better intentions than it first appeared, but they did not react the way many of us would have expected. Some, however pointed out that they would have done the same. However, I challenge them to think of the situation in reverse. If an elder European American had begun to sing to a group of African American young men and those young men then stepped up in the same way the European American boys did, the issue may have ended with more conflict than a viral video.
The songs they sang may have been glee songs or school spirit chants, but those chants were misappropriated from the indigenous Māori people from New Zealand. The Haka that they were imitating is something quite spectacular and unique to the Māori and the Māori question anyone who performs it without sanction. I have been honored to learn at the knees of their elders. The tomahawk chop and mock war whoops were racially insensitive at best, and provocative at worst.
The Elder, Mr. Phillips, may have been attempting to step up and take responsibility to diffuse the situation, as he suggested. If not, his actions would be hard to interpret in any other way. He was not mocking the young men or accosting them with verbal attacks or angry words. He used a form of correction that diverts attention away from the conflict. This is a time tested and honored way to address conflict. He stepped out and sang to diffuse the situation. A tradition that brings our people together and bolsters good feelings among those assembled. Apparently, it worked because when he finished, it was over. The AIM flag song is not sacred to some, but it could be considered spiritual and he should be commended for singing the song to dispel the conflict, even if he had to walk out of his way to do it. He was non-threatening.
The young men may have made mistakes by some interpretations but ultimately as minors, the adults that should have been leading them to make better decisions failed, both, them and us. I can’t defend the actions of the young men but i want to divert the focus. We need better education and dialogue to help prevent this sort of incident and not escalate it. I believe it is an elder’s responsibility to correct and direct and adults should follow that lead. That’s why this long letter is a plea to make changes. Reach out to our Native communities and other minorities for guest speakers and curriculum guidance. If folks don’t like what we say, we should still learn to understand why we say it. I’m listening to my European American friends and I am learning. In fact, I have been my whole life. It has been impressed upon me to listen to the majority, understand it, learn it and even become it. I will not do the latter. It has also been my job to explain why we are different and why our perspective matters. That is tiresome, too. It is worth it though. We must take the time to learn from one another and learn about one another, from each other’s perspectives. If the narratives and ideas are in conflict, hear them out. Understanding will overcome with patience, time and effort.
For my Native friends and relatives, it is time to step up and be teachers. I know it’s a heavy burden and we should not have to beg to be valued and for our voices to be heard. It is emotional labor of the colonized to educate the masses about our lives, but our elders have already given so much. We can now play our role. If it’s too heavy of a burden, pass it on to another who can bare it. Just like Nate Phillips stepped up to diffuse the situation, we are being called to do the same. Our motives will be questioned, and we will be vilified but the future generations will benefit from our interventions. It’s time to step up so our elders can teach us, not with demands and anger, but with patience and grace. Not because it is owed but because we have that power.
Let’s not cry for the destruction of those that are ignorant, misguided or confused. Let’s educate our children and their’s, alike. Each Nation has been given teachings and it is time to share them and apply them equally, and with rigor. We should not be selective with the blessings of our teachings. If we are going to expect better behavior, we need to provide them with what we value and expect. The best way to teach is by example. They are asking for a better way and if we have it, we are better off by sharing it. Maybe enough will listen to cause change.
For those of you who don’t understand Indians or Indigenous people and what we do, please don’t react to us with distain and incredulous mockery. Understand that some of us are so lost and changed by five centuries of confusion and chaos that we cannot give a unified and comprehensive answer, but we have wise ones among us. We have elders who have kept our ways, and young people we hold accountable to keep them alive- ways of respect, dignity, and responsibility. ᎣᏏᏳ
ᎠᏯ ᏩᏕ ᎦᎵᏍᎨᏫ ᏥᎪᏪᎸᎦ
